Truth Does Matter
A recent UK news article reported on protests in Glasgow, with the headline “Truth no longer matters – are migrants really jumping the housing queue?” Whether the claim is true or false, it can cause fear and rage. One angry person commented that they had no way of checking what they read on social media.
When Jesus was on trial, the Roman governor Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). This may have been a genuine question or a sarcastic remark in response to Jesus’ words: “You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice” (John 18:37).
A strong theme in the Bible is that God, and therefore Jesus also, value truth: truth in terms of honesty and also in setting the correct divine moral standards in life.
Nowadays, it seems, truth is not valued as much as it used to be. You can find people online who will tell you pretty well anything you want to hear. There are those who simply believe what makes sense to them – what they want to believe.
This attitude is unwise in any context. There are some situations – for example in medicine and law – where basing opinions on false beliefs can be disastrous.
So much more with religious faith. Many people believe things about the character of God and an afterlife that are at variance with what is in the Bible.
In New Testament times there was a group of people who checked against their scriptures what they heard from the apostles.
‘The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so’ (Acts 17:11).
We have access to the Bible. Rather than believing what people tell us, we should read it for ourselves to check what it actually says. We should be seriously concerned about that. For it is a real matter of life and death. We cannot afford to simply believe what we consider to be ‘common sense’.
Truth most certainly DOES matter!
Anna Hart
